GUT REACTION

Want to live a healthier, happier life? Experts think the bacteria in your gut could be the secret to living well

- EVA-MARIA BOBBERT

IF gut health were a religion, it’s fair to say I grew up among devout believers. Homemade sourdough, sauerkraut and – the sourest of them all – the giant gelatinous kombucha pellicle bubbling away on the kitchen shelf were my toast-and-tea growing up.

A saintly diet was not my priority when I flew the nest, but the frivolity was disappointingly short-lived. Within a year my energy plummeted to a state of alarming lethargy, and painful eczema cracked the skin on my hands with such ferocity that I couldn’t hold a pen to take lecture notes. I was eventually declared intolerant to pretty much everything bar breathing but, despite doggedly sticking to a holier-than-thou elimination diet, there was no improvement. I was, in a very literal sense, a misery guts.

‘Even a small change in our microbiome can have a snowball effect,’ says Professor Phil Hansbro, author of The Good Gut AntiInflammatory Diet and director of the Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation in Australia. ‘Inflammation and damage to the gut create an opportunity for more “bad” bacteria to grow. These bad bacterial species take more and more space, resulting in a loss of immune tolerance and chronic inflammation.’

Processed and sugary foods are linked to feeding inflammatory-producing bacteria in the gut, but the damage they do is very individual because it depends on what other microbes you have that could tip the balance in your favour.

There are 4000 to 6000 bacterial species in the gut, Prof Hansbro says. ‘Incredibly, each species has its own specific nutritional needs and produces its own metabolites. Some are pro-inflammatory – they produce toxins and metabolites that cause inflammation in our body.’